Where's The Funding?!: Recent Episodes
Where's The Funding?!
The WTF?! Africa Edition podcast has been consolidated with the Where's The Funding Podcast. No new episodes will be uploaded here. Please subscribe to the Where's The Funding Podcast for Africa-related and global content.
The WTF podcast highlights the challenges and successes of African entrepreneurs using a storytelling format. The show also features guests on the funding/investment side of things to demystify access to funding on the continent and share valuable information about funding and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa.
Umulinga Karangwa is a Rwandese Fund Manager and Investment Advisor with 17 years of experience in financial services with a focus on investments in Africa. Over the past 13 years, Umulinga has raised and managed funds investing in Africa for different asset classes and is passionate about developing African capital markets and home-grown asset managers on the continent.
Key interview highlights:
- Umulinga started covering investments from Belgium to London and then the African market where she covered African equities. Her passion gave birth to the setup of a forum for the same Investment in Africa.
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All investors take risks, but in different aspects and degrees;
- Private equities take a calculated risk by investing in companies with a good track record, growing but stable and promising.
- V.Cs invest in fast-growing companies with strong client attraction at an early stage.
- Angel investors take higher risk, as Investments are done with fair ticket sizes when founders are still quite unstable and without sizable revenue which is one of the reasons angel investors are crucial and critical for supporting start-ups.
- It is essential for founders to have a good networking approach and to understand the rudiments of fundraising as well as ways to connect investors, Part of which is getting coached for fundraising, connecting to incubators (most of which have serious investors with specialties backing them) and other entrepreneurs.
- The likeability of investors is higher when the business idea is scalable, can solve problems, create job opportunities, and have a strong founding team. Founders must be intentional and positive about their pitch. Confident, committed, strong, open to collaboration, and inquiring of feedback from investors. Founders should be resilient enough to go back with a better module when feedback is negative.
Social Media: Connect with Umulinga on LinkedIn
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.
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Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
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Michelle J. McKenzie
Hakeem Jimo is a Vegan entrepreneur who co-founded VeggieVictory together with Bola Adeyanju - Nigeria's pioneer plant-based restaurant turned food company. VeggieVictory started in 2013 as a restaurant, before introducing VegChunks, the first commercially produced meat substitute in Nigeria, which emanated from the urge to provide for vegan needs, and now available in QSR in Nigeria and many other stores nationwide. VegChunks is a food option for people prone to non-communicable diseases, those looking for more affordable protein sources, and of course lifestyle changes.
In 2013 it started as Nigeria's first plant-based restaurant and is now the country's first mover plant-based food tech company. Hakeem has a Nigerian-German background and was a communication professional before VeggieVictory.
Key interview highlights:
- Entrepreneurship is a process that may not yield exponential results until after two years or more. The early stage is a period to network, invest energy, organic funds, and time to build the business and create traction.
- Organic funding (self-investment or investment from family or friends and then funds from business cash flow) at the start-up stage is important before pursuing external funding from investors.
- Investors often expect a founder to be 100% dedicated to their venture when seeking external funding. Investors want to feel confident that the founder is fully vested and dedicated to the success of the venture.
- Fundraising is a journey that requires getting trained to become investment-ready. Look for training or accelerators/incubators to get the skills needed to pursue angel, venture capital, or private equity funding.
- Grants are a good funding alternative. However, be mindful because you cannot build a business on grants alone.
- Angel investors are easier to work with compared to development institutions, and venture capitalists. Angels offer small ticket sizes that give the right-size funding needed by some SMEs to evolve.
- Angel investment can convince other investors to invest in your business faster than if you have only been funded by grants.
Social Media: @veggievictory.com
@vegchuncks.africa
@Africavegannigeria
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.
We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
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Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
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Michelle J. McKenzie
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Freda Isingoma is the founder and CEO of KIISA, LLC. Freda is an entrepreneur and ex-investment banking professional who has worked in multinational and leading investment institutions in London, New York, and Cape Town. She has experience in establishing successful business initiatives as well as managing investment funds. This includes her role as a venture capitalist for an award-winning team at Close Brothers Group (UK) an African Investment consultant at Nile Capital Management based in New York.
Key interview highlights:
- There are more voices for SMEs in developed countries like the UK and the USA. There is an absence of mid-cap firms in the African capital market compared to more developed markets in the US and the UK. In most of Africa, there are either large-cap traditional family-owned businesses that have been around for generations or small-cap businesses often characterized by tiny companies and early-stage start-ups with very few mid-cap firms.
- In addition to access to funding, technical assistance in developing executive teams and roots to market support is necessary to scale-up micro-firms into mid-cap firms.
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Things to keep in mind when starting a new entrepreneurship venture:
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entrepreneurship does not require 100% certainty before venturing in;
- become a scholar of your business and make sure that you believe in your idea;
- make sure that you have enough runway (cash to pay your living expenses) for several months because your business might not be profitable right away and it might even take up to 5 yrs to reach break-even of profitability even if it is cash generative;
- finding funding is not as swift as imagined, therefore build relationships and a network for support
- prioritize your clients and suppliers to serve as brand ambassadors for your businesses--referral is vital for consistent growth of SMEs;
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a capable executive team/leadership structure is necessary to build the business and drive the mission
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Art is a valuable asset if more people understand the role that art can play in wealth-building as a viable alternative asset to cash and other forms of investments.
Guest contact info/social media:
LinkedIn : @ Freda Isingoma Instagram : @Freda Isingoma
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.
We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
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Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
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Follow hosts on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie and Lydia Nylander
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Franklin Olakunle Amoo is a co-founder and the Managing Partner of Baylis Emerging Markets. As an active investor in a number of operating companies across Africa, Franklin serves on the boards of several African companies. Prior to co-founding Baylis, Franklin helped lead the Strategic Credit Group the $1.8 trillion Mizuho Financial Group, where he helped establish the High Yield sales and trading, secondary loan trading, structured finance, and asset finance businesses. Franklin worked at Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
A Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Franklin holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Baylis is a non-BRIC private-equity emerging and frontier markets investment fund that focuses on private middle-market growth equity investments in industrial and telecom assets across Africa. Baylis focuses on less covered geographies, including francophone and post-conflict countries, where access to much needed developmental and growth capital has been an on-going issue.
Key interview highlights:
- Raising funds takes time whether you are raising investment funds or you are an entrepreneur looking for investment. Make sure you have a long runway; having enough funds to survive and mobilize the business for the first few years cannot be overemphasized!
- Fundraising by fund investors can be as equally strenuous. It takes a lot of time and effort to raise funds whether you are raising funds as an investor or as a founder.
- Emerging Market Funds like Baylis are looking for alignment around values and understanding the companies that they include in their portfolios Africa's primary source of capital is still the Development Financial Institutions.
- The appetite for investing in Africa is low and unevenly targeted to a few countries, mostly the Anglophone countries with a dearth of investment opportunities for Francophone countries.
- Only about 10% of private-equity deals from African funds raised ever earn any carry or hit the hurdle rate of around 8% above the hurdle rate one of the reasons being poor alignment between investment funds and recipients of investment funds
Guest contact info/social media: Connect with Franklin on LinkedIn
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast. We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram and like or follow the WTF Africa Edition podcast on Facebook.
Follow hosts on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie and Lydia Nylander
Join us for the next episode!
Violet Nyando is an Agricultural Innovation Expert with over 15 years of experience in Agribusiness Advisory Services and Agricultural Rural Innovations Studies with a particular interest in Youth Entrepreneurship, Governance, and Leadership of Agri-Enterprises. Her experience in Kenya and Eastern Africa and engagement with International Development Practitioners across the World has earned her a deeper understanding of the African Agricultural and Community Landscape.
Violet has expertise in the areas of Agricultural Innovations including Climate Smart Agriculture, Agricultural Policy Development, Institutional Development, and Strengthening, Agricultural Advisory and Extension, Agricultural Product Value Chain Development, Gender Analysis, and Mainstreaming, Agribusiness Development with a particular interest in Youth Entrepreneurship, Governance and Leadership of Agri-Enterprises, Public Policy Lobby and Advocacy Processes and Impact Assessment of Development Projects both in the public and private sector.
Key interview highlights:
- Many African business ideas fail not because they are not good but because they did not get sufficient support. Many African SMEs fail before the 3rd year because of insufficient interrogation of the business idea and the foundation that they were built on wasn’t strong enough to last
- Youth-led African businesses need better institutional support and business development services, in addition, to access to finance, technical assistance, skill-building, and good governance/management training
- Access to finance is still a major challenge to growing good ideas into profitable businesses. In Kenya there are some Youth Entrepreneurship Funding Models that include:
- Group lending
- Government program-based funding (declared funds) that target youth
- Cost-share funding models promoted by development partners (bundled with technical assistance) where partial funding is provided and bundled with technical assistance and mentoring
- The entrepreneurship process needs to be demystified in terms of the timelines for business growth and profitability and hard work that goes into creating a successful business.
- The importance of prioritizing customers by creating a great customer experience. Customers are not only a form of funding but also the best advertising. Happy customers are the best advertisers and repeat customers are good for cash flow.
Connect with Violet on LinkedIn: Violet Nyando
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.
We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.
Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media:
Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram and like or follow the WTF Africa Edition podcast on Facebook.
Follow hosts on LinkedIn:
Michelle J. McKenzie and Lydia Nylander
Join us for the next episode!
Temidayo Adebayo is the Founder and Managing Partner of BAYI Capital with experience in identifying and nurturing high-impact investment opportunities in small-to-medium enterprises (SME). The Bayi Foundation arm of the business focuses on developing and supporting the small business community with the right support to breakeven and found their group with limited dilution.
Key interview highlights:
- Where is the “Made in Africa Product”? How many black-owned and managed companies are earning at a minimum $100 M in revenues? For African entrepreneurs, it is important to focus on creating “Made in Africa’ products. There are too few products in the global market that are made in Africa.
- Black entrepreneurs (no matter where they are located) should focus on building businesses that can become “blue-chip'' companies that sustain and thrive well beyond their founders' lifespan. The Bayi Foundation supports entrepreneurs in the US and Africa in product development and business services.
- The first person who buys into your product or business idea is YOU! Small business entrepreneurs MUST invest in themselves and their businesses as the first investor if they are serious about growing their business and attracting external investors.
- Many African entrepreneurs have an inability or unwillingness to pay for business development services that they need to grow their business, which is a major barrier to business development on the continent.
- Entrepreneurship is another name for a leader, leadership and entrepreneurship are intertwined.
Follow the BAYI Foundation on Facebook and Instagram.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.
We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram and like or follow the WTF Africa Edition podcast on Facebook.
Follow hosts on LinkedIn:
Michelle J. McKenzie and Lydia Nylander
Join us for the next episode!
Evelyn Lewis is the CEO of SBTS (Sierra Business Technology Systems) Group Inc., a global technology firm that helps governments understand and coordinate attention to economic organizational, technological innovation, and integrated enterprise.
Evelyn talks about how his childhood curiosity with computers and technology led to the creation of the SBTS Group of companies to make an impact on people's lives, especially in Sierra Leone where he is from.
He chronicles how he started and grew his business and how he got into youth training and creating job opportunities for youth, not just in Sierra Leone but also in other countries on the African continent.
Some of his most important work was with using technology for contact tracing to help manage and defeat the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone between 2013 - 2016 that killed 11,323 people. The SBTS Group developed the Health Outbreak Manager (HOM) software which consists of an app and a comprehensive suite of tools that help collect and manage data for users for EVD responders and have been updated for use with COVID-19 responders.
To connect with Evelyn, you can find him on LinkedIn.
Seun Shokunbi is Brooklyn raised, Nigerian bred, and seeks to connect her diaspora community with their native roots to spark a generational revolution in Africa. Her work with Karfi, a consulting and leadership development firm, and its charitable arm the Karfi Foundation, tackles the issue of untapped talent among youth and the most marginalized communities in Africa. She strongly believes that democratizing the entrepreneurial space is vital to Africa’s economic development. That means empowering any and all, regardless of wealth, status or geography, with the resources and tools needed to lead and succeed.
Mberry is the Deputy Treasurer of the Women's Investment Club (WIC) Sénégal, an organization that envisions to give women in francophone West Africa privileged access to financial instruments for inclusive economic development. Before becoming Deputy Treasurer, she worked as the manager of the organization, namely on the design, operationalization and launch of WIC Capital, the organization's investment fund and WIC Academy, its technical assistance structure.
Follow WIC on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at WIC Senegal
This episode was recorded months ago during the initial COVID lockdown period.
Regina took what she learned working in Silicon Valley with Singularity University, particularly the abundance and exponential mindset, and is creating an ecosystem in Kenya for entrepreneurs where abundant thinking is at the foundation. This gave life to Kizo Ventures, Kizo being a Swahili word that means abundance.
Abundance mindset - a mindset that focuses on what is possible and what you have
Scarcity mindset- a mindset that focuses on limitations and what is not working
Regina is trying to change and scale the abundant mindset among African youth entrepreneurs and is hopeful that she will be able to do so but cognizant that it will take time. Kizo Ventures is training youth entrepreneurs about how to work collaboratively and equip them with the skills that they need to be globally competitive.
The Kizo investment catalyst is preparing entrepreneurs for investment and then connecting them with investors in their network.
What do you think about Regina’s views on collaboration and an abundance mindset?
Do you feel comfortable sharing your business ideas for feedback among your peers?
What Do You Think About the Antler Model of Connecting Entrepreneurs to Capital?
Email us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com and let us know your thoughts about this episode or give us general feedback about this podcast. Don't forget to subscribe, like, rate, and share your favorite episodes of this podcast with friends to help us grow the listening audience.
Eugenia Akuete is the true definition of a survivor. Queue Destiny’s Child “I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it, I’m a survivor, I keep on surviving…” She is also an avid advocate for women who is staunchly committed to fighting against gender bias and unjust inheritance laws, education, and all of the other barriers in Ghana and other parts of Africa that prevent women from the pursuit of their full potential.
Eugenia is the founder of Mother’s Shea and Chairwoman of Naasakle International. She has been a force in the shea butter industry since 2000 when she founded the initial business Naasakle Ltd to help her aged and ailing mother and empower herself after a divorce that left her with very little in assets and $30 which she called her war chest. She used this money to buy a calabash of shea butter in the market to package and resell to generate income.
Over the years the business faced many challenges accessing funding. In the earlier days, banks would not offer a bridge loan and even if a loan were offered, the high-interest rates of up to 28% would have made repayment difficult. One mechanism that Eugenia used to address the cash-flow shortage was to ask customers to pay 20%-50% of their order cost up-front. Most customers obliged but she lost two major customers in the process.
Eugenia did not give up because her purpose is far bigger than her. She is trying to create change in an entire value chain which is considered liquid gold for poor rural women in Ghana and other African countries across the continent where shea trees are found. When Eugenia and her business succeed, women shea nut pickers and processors in Ghana benefit from the residual benefits from the growth of a business that does not exist just to make a profit but to change the lives of shea producers and their families.
Sources of financing mentioned in the podcast:
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$30 self-financing
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Investing initial profits back into the business
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$100,000 USADF grant
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Ecobank small business loan
You can follow Eu’Genia Shea and Mothers Shea on Instagram and Facebook. Mother’s Shea products can be found at Target in over 900 stores and Target online. Eu’Genia Shea products can be found at their website and in US retailers such as Credo Beauty, Macy’s, Anthropology ad Urban Outfitters, and Costco online.
Adramé Ndione is an entrepreneur and an Africa-focused investment executive with a proven track record of successful investment activities in Africa. Adramé is the Managing Director of the Gambian Angel Investors Network, Founder and Managing Partner of Vertis Capital, an upcoming West African VC firm. Since 2015 he held investment positions in Private Equity firms in Paris, including Inframed Management, a 350M€ infrastructure investment fund. From 2005 to 2012, Adramé held management positions in Société Générale Investment Bank, a top tier investment bank based in Paris.
Adramé brought a wealth of investment knowledge and experience to the WTF Africa Edition podcast. He talks about investing in West Africa and the problems with African angel investor networks not being as active as they could be in the investment space. He discusses the motivation and the skills on the part of some of the existing Angel Network as well as whether they are incentivized enough to be more active. He is working on an initiative to capacitate existing African angel networks so that they can be more active in Africa and particularly the West Africa investment ecosystem.
In Africa, investors should not be looking for unicorns, they should be looking for Gazelles, which they are more likely to find in emerging market ecosystems like Africa. Adramé likens equity investment to a marriage where it is necessary to ensure that parties (entrepreneurs and investors) are well aligned to make the investment relationship work.
Adramé recommends going to investors before you need them because fundraising can take time. The trouble with that is that as an entrepreneur you have to make the right connections with access to investor networks who can make recommendations on your behalf, which is often more productive than through cold contact.
When looking for funding, Adramé recommends looking first in your immediate environment for opportunities, especially when first starting out. Look for grants from international development organizations, government funds, and other sources of funding that might be available. Many entrepreneurs tend to not know what is available in their local environment. Research is a key component in finding funding and there is no shortcut for this.
Google is your friend when you are looking for funding, there are many angel networks in many countries so search terms like “angel network Senegal” or insert country name to access the websites for the networks in each country. Work with your hubs that are in your countries because the hubs tend to be connected to the investment networks that exist in a country. Attend events where you might find investors and network to make connections. Make sure that you are strategic and gracious when you network.
When approaching investors, know the following:
● Know your market and your numbers (financial model showing returns)
● Have a strong management team - a strong team is important
● Have key ratios- customer acquisition ratio
● The average revenue per user/customer
● Customer lifetime value – how long customers stay with you
You can connect with Adramé on LinkedIn or adamendione@vertiscapital.net. Adrame can also be found on twitter.
Rate, review, subscribe, and come back for more. We would also love to hear from you. Drop us an email at whereisthefunding@gmail.com and tell us what you like about the show and what topics you want us to explore as it relates to funding for black entrepreneurs and particularly black women entrepreneurs.
Jumanne Mtambalike in a Tanzanian entrepreneur and technologist. Jumanne is best known for championing stable innovation ecosystems in Africa. He is a founder of Sahara Ventures, the parent company of Sahara Sparks event, Africa's largest event on innovation and technology entrepreneurship, and Sahara Accelerator. Jumanne started Sahara Ventures in 2015 as a group of companies with the specific focus of helping start-ups and entrepreneurs to identify potential opportunities and partners to build sustainable businesses, accelerate them by providing technical assistance and help them to connect with potential sponsors and donors.
Sahara ventures include three separate businesses, Sahara events, which hosts business events, the accelerator program that helps businesses get investor ready and a consulting arm centered around investment, technology, and innovation.
Jumanne talks about the difficulty generating accurate post-program data from accelerator program participants and the reticence of African entrepreneurs to disclose when they have raised follow-on funding. This adds a level of challenge on the part of incubators and accelerators to accurately communicate the evidence of the impact of their efforts.
Jumanne also shares his thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurs and SMEs in Africa and how Sahara Ventures is helping SMEs to capitalize on the digital economy. Though COVID is a crisis, there are opportunities for African entrepreneurs to adopt technologies to manage and even thrive through the crisis and beyond.
He also talks about the missing gap in scale and growth funding for African entrepreneurs where there are smaller funds to start-up seed funding and then the available funding jumps to $1M+ and investors will complain that entrepreneurs are not investment ready but the issue is that there is a gap in the flow of funding which contributes to the problem.
Investors are more interested in investing in SMEs that are established with a track record to minimize their risks. They are less interested in start-ups with a novel idea. Fintech however leverages more investor money with the success of M-pesa.
We talked about localized African investors and Angel Investors. Jumanne touched on the need for capacity building for local angel investors for them to understand how start-ups work. They are more accustomed to investing in more traditional assets such as land and real estate where they can understand how they will make money. There are other issues around the weak participation of local investors connected to weak regulations that bar local investor support for local ventures looking to scale and grow.
Examples of African venture funds include: Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund, East Africa Venture Capital Association
You can check out Sahara Ventures on their website and follow them on LinkedIn and you can read Jumanne’s articles on entrepreneurship and the African ecosystem on Medium.
Pape Samb is the Global Vice President & Executive Director for Ashoka Africa and the Founder of Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN). Amina Sillah, PhD is an educator, entrepreneur, and the current CEO of Global Youth Innovation Network a network (GYIN) for youth entrepreneurs and rural micro-enterprises who are committed to act as hunger fighters, change agents, and innovators globally. international development analyst, an experienced nonprofit manager, and an urban policy analyst.
Pape and Amina talk about youth organizations and their challenges securing funding for their small ventures, particularly for those that are social enterprises where in many countries there still isn’t a proper legal framework for social enterprises to register their businesses. Social enterprises also face unique challenges raising funds as well because they aren’t always adept at presenting the business case for their social enterprises to attract business funding.
Challenge with data and monitoring and evaluation seems to be a challenge all around not just for incubators and accelerators but also for other programs that work to capacitate young entrepreneurs. It is difficult to measure impact without accurate data.
Amina and Pape also mentioned the lack of social capital between funders and youth organizations and specifically a lack of trust. Youth feel that there is a lack of trust for their knowledge about what the challenges are they are trying to solve and how to apply funding to solve those challenges. To help youth entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs thrive, there is a role to play at various levels. Many different sources of funding have a role to play in helping youth entrepreneurs thrive. There is a role for government, development institutions, philanthropy, and private investment.
You can find Pape and Amina on LinkedIn as well as follow the Ashoka and GYINpages on LinkedIn.
Mabinty's career took her from public affairs to international development engagements at the World Bank and GIIN looking at how best to leverage private sector financing to address societal challenges. These experiences led her to Nairobi, motivated by a need to shift gears to create development approaches and solutions that use finance more effectively.
Wakiuru worked in the NGO sector but yearned for work with a core emphasis on sustainability and impact. After developing expertise in finance during a stint at the Nest Collective - Wakiuru’s expertise in finance prompted analysis work on the creative sector which led to her joining HEVA - the continent’s first investment fund focused on creative enterprises in 2014.
Wakiuru and Mabinty, fueled by the same passion to invest in young women in the continent, started LIVE Africa in 2019 to address the gap and opportunity they saw in the sector. Legacy Impact Venture Enterprise Africa (LIVE Africa) is an impact investing company providing Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) services and working to drive capital to African, women-led businesses and gender-balanced teams.
The company through expertise in health, education, the arts/creative economy, agribusiness, and technology shapes our practice and investment strategy and offers a combination of skills, including data analysis, research, training on IMM, and impact assessments.
In the episode, Wakuiru talked about investor reticence around a financial commitment to creative sectors and talked about the critical need for a less traditional investment ethos around investment and more emphasis on technical assistance and capacity building, highlighting the snowball effect of these inventions in growing and scaling the creative art sector. Wakiuru also highlighted the correlation of women’s participation at all business levels with company development and growth.
Part 2 of this interview will be released on June 24 so come back to hear the rest of what Mabinty and Wakiuru have to say. Don't forget to listen, subscribe, rate, and review.
Contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com and let us know what you think of the show, propose questions or suggestions for topics to cover on future episodes.
Mabinty's career took her from public affairs to international development engagements at the World Bank and GIIN looking at how best to leverage private sector financing to address societal challenges. These experiences led her to Nairobi, motivated by a need to shift gears to create development approaches and solutions that use finance more effectively.
Wakiuru worked in the NGO sector but yearned for work with a core emphasis on sustainability and impact. After developing expertise in finance during a stint at the Nest Collective - Wakiuru’s expertise in finance prompted analysis work on the creative sector which led to her joining HEVA - the continent’s first investment fund focused on creative enterprises in 2014.
Wakiuru and Mabinty, fueled by the same passion to invest in young women in the continent, started LIVE Africa in 2019 to address the gap and opportunity they saw in the sector. Legacy Impact Venture Enterprise Africa (LIVE Africa) is an impact investing company providing Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) services and working to drive capital to African, women-led businesses and gender-balanced teams. The company through expertise in health, education, the arts/creative economy, agribusiness, and technology shapes our practice and investment strategy and offers a combination of skills, including data analysis, research, training on IMM, and impact assessments.
Part 2 of this episode will be released on June 24th so make sure you subscribe if you are not already a subscriber and set your notifications/ You do not want to miss it! Don't forget to like, rate and review this episode. If you have any questions or suggestions for what you want us to discuss in future episodes, contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com
This episode features Iddy (Eid) John, a Tanzanian entrepreneur running two online tech-based businesses; Safari Wallet, a travel business that targets local travel by African and Place Listed an online directory for restaurants and lodgings. With the current economic realities around COVID-19, there are many challenges to businesses such as restaurants, many of which are closed as a part of the disease mitigation process, micro food businesses such as informal food sellers would be hard hit with no safety net or way to continue to make a living if they cannot sell food on the street.
The food delivery platform for Place Listed could fill a critical need by pulling in the micro food businesses into the food delivery business so that they can continue to earn a living in these trying economic times. The food delivery platform could also provide an opportunity for the motorcycle taxis to integrate them into the food delivery system to supplement their incomes considering that fewer people will be out riding on these taxis in close proximity.
COVID-19 Funding Resources:
Tech Funding
IBM is offering $270,000 in cash prizes and direct IBM developer support to build, fortify, test, and deploy the winning ideas through IBM Code and Response. Submissions should address three main COVID-19 areas: crisis communications, remote learning, community cooperation.
Apply Now: $270,000 IBM Funding for COVID-19 Digital Response
Apply Now: $5 Million from Gates Foundation for Digital Health Projects
Apply Now: 10 Million CHF to Improve Adolescent Wellbeing with Technology
Apply Now: $100 Million for Digital Health Informatics in PEPFAR Countries
General
Grant Station: https://grantstation.com/covid-19-related-funding
Opportunities for Youth: https://www.opportunitiesforyouth.org/2020/04/04/digifi-request-for-research-proposals-on-covid-19
What is covidcap.com?
On March 26, 2020, CASE and CASE i3 at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business launched a searchable website to help any entrepreneur in the world, for-profit or nonprofit, struggling due to the economic impacts of COVID19, to locate cash relief resources in their community.
This is a searchable database where you can search for Africa or by specific country names.
DEVEX has an interactive platform for COVID-19 funding at https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/zqG5wY
This episode features the fabulous Francesca Brenda Opoku, a Social Entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer of Solution Oasis Ltd; a Ghanaian agro-processing company that manufactures the BEAUTY SECRETS, EXOTIC MAN and KIPENZIbrands of natural beauty products from shea butter and agricultural waste.
Entrepreneurship:
After leaving her corporate job and despite a rocky start to her entrepreneurship journey, Francesca pushed through in the face or early challenges and now curate’s high-quality shea butter products sourced directly from cooperatives in Ghana.
One of her key lessons learned is that “as an entrepreneur, I have learned that a lot is possible.” Francesca shares many gems and pearls of wisdom that demystify entrepreneurship and paint a more accurate but still quite inspiring image of what entrepreneurship is really like. Entrepreneurship is not a thing that you do alone, it is a thing that you do in partnership.
Funding Challenges:
When asked about her challenges with funding she emphasized how much time and dedication the process of securing funding or financing requires. She often wonders whether she has spent a whole lifetime fundraising—knowing that it is necessary although trying part of the process of growing and scaling a business. She shares how frustrating and sometimes demoralizing fundraising can be to the point of bringing her to tears sometimes, but it is part of the hurdles that many entrepreneurs will have to overcome to get to where they want to take their business.
Her many challenges with fundraising have often left her disheartened but her resilience has always allowed her to rally when she thinks about why she does what she does and what she has already invested. Her resilience is anchored by the hunger and appetite for what she has created, and the blood sweat and tears that have been invested and a bit of hope. “What business do I have staying at the mediocre stage when I know that the world is mine to take and that if I do, I am not going alone. I am taking so many people with me and also that I am very qualified for what is available and why are the doors being closed?” This is a question that she is still looking for answers to.
Partnership:
Francesca talks fondly about the beautiful relationship that she has developed with competitor turned partner and friend who has become like family—Funlayo Alabi of Shea Radiance skin and haircare brand. Francesca supplies the black soaps marketed by Shea Radiance and is a part of the Shea Radiance supply chain while maintaining her own skincare product lines and living and defining what it means to ‘collaborate to compete’. As entrepreneurs and black women in the case of Francesca and Funlayo, they are proving that women can collaborate to win while competing in the same business.
How to connect with Francesca:
Website: beautysecretsusa.com
Social media: beautysecretsusa on Instagram and beautysecrets africa on Facebook
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Michelle: Are you an African entrepreneur looking for funding?
Lydia: The Where’s The Funding (WTF) Podcast, Africa Edition sheds light on the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs to find financing to scale and grow their businesses.
Michelle: The WTF Africa podcast highlights the challenges and successes of African entrepreneurs using a storytelling format. The show also features guests on the funding/investment side of things to demystify access to funding on the continent and share valuable information about funding and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa.
Lydia: If this is the type of content that you are looking for, hit the subscribe button to get notifications when new episodes are released. Stream, download, like, rate, and review episodes that you find informative. Reach out to us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com with suggestions for the types of information you would like us to cover on the show. Join us every two weeks as we continue to ask WTF?! Where’s the funding for African entrepreneurs?